Chapter 46: Racing the Leaderboard
Flynn had known that Duke Ceylan would appear after Markel’s defeat. What he had not expected was for the Duke to personally deliver the final blow to his own son.
Technically, Prince Markel had already reached zero health. The fight itself was finished. But the game’s script demanded a lingering moment before the scene could conclude. Markel remained alive just long enough for the Duke, concealed within that towering pillar of black light, to emerge, deliver a lengthy speech, and then carry out the execution himself.
For someone like Let-There-Be-Light, who was deeply familiar with the game’s lore, the Duke’s words cleared up most of the confusion surrounding the ruins. It was a classic tale of ambition turning a family against itself. After Duke Ceylan had established the Duchy, his son had apparently grown impatient and attempted to seize power. The coup had gone horribly wrong, drawing the attention of the Moster City Guard and leading to the destruction of the Duchy’s forces. From the sound of it, Markel had likely been the one who killed his own father during that struggle.
For Flynn, however, the more the Duke talked, the less sense any of it made.
’What is all this nonsense?’ he wondered, listening to the explanation with a blank expression.
With Markel now truly dead, the figure within the black pillar slowly rose upward and emerged from the darkness.
Duke Ceylan appeared to be an elderly man wearing a suit of pitch-black plate armor that looked as though it had been forged from shadow itself. His hair was thin and completely white, and his face was withered, marked by deep lines carved by age and hardship. The most unsettling part of his appearance, however, was his eyes. They held a dull gray color that looked utterly lifeless, as if no trace of humanity remained within them.
"Duke Ceylan... the final boss," Let-There-Be-Light said quietly, drawing in a steady breath as he watched the old man.
He turned to the rest of the group.
"Everyone stay sharp. Recover your resources first. After that, we’ll sort out the loot."
While the others sat down to eat food and drink potions to restore their resources, Let-There-Be-Light opened the dungeon leaderboard.
Just as he expected, the rankings had already shifted.
The team that had previously been in first place had fallen to second. His own name, Let-There-Be-Light, now stood at the top of the list, with their progress updated to show that they had defeated Prince Markel.
He quickly searched the board again for Chad’s name. To his surprise, Chad’s team still had not cleared the boss.
Let-There-Be-Light glanced over at Flynn.
"Stalker, why hasn’t your friend cleared it yet? He should have finished by now."
Flynn shrugged. "No idea. Let me ask."
He sent Chad a quick message and received a reply almost immediately. As Flynn read it, he burst out laughing.
"What happened?" Let-There-Be-Light asked.
"Not enough DPS," Flynn said, grinning. "They found Edruson, but they keep hitting a wall in the second phase. They can’t kill the heads fast enough. Chad says he’s losing his mind over there."
Flynn looked extremely pleased with himself.
It meant Chad had definitely lost their bet tonight. The guy was probably cursing like crazy on the other side of the house.
Let-There-Be-Light quietly let out a breath of relief.
If Flynn had not reached level sixteen and upgraded his weapons before entering the dungeon, their own team might have ended up stuck in the exact same situation.
But just as he began to relax, the leaderboard shifted again. The second-place team suddenly updated their progress.
The leader’s name was Mila. They had also cleared Prince Markel.
Let-There-Be-Light felt his chest tighten slightly. He turned toward Flynn.
"Who else did you tell about Edruson?"
"Just my friend. Why?"
"Take a look," Let-There-Be-Light said, gesturing toward the leaderboard. "Mila’s team just cleared Markel too."
Flynn scratched his head.
"Well... maybe they figured it out themselves."
He knew Chad well enough to be confident that the guy would never leak information like that.
Let-There-Be-Light nodded slowly.
"That’s possible. Mila’s a well-known professional player. She’s ranked in the top thirty in North America."
He glanced at the leaderboard again.
"The team she’s running with right now is stacked. Every single one of them is ranked in the top hundred. They’re basically in the same league as Chad."
Technically, Chad’s official ranking was somewhere in the four hundreds. However, most professional players considered that number misleading. His actual skill level was widely believed to be well within the top hundred.
The pressure returned to Let-There-Be-Light’s shoulders as he finished distributing the loot from Markel.
Unfortunately, the drops were nothing special.
Even the best item, a silver-grade ring, had fairly mediocre stats: Intellect and Mana. Since no one else in the party needed those attributes, Let-There-Be-Light took it for himself.
The remaining green-grade equipment offered small improvements for the others. Better than nothing, but far from game-changing.
Once the loot was settled, Let-There-Be-Light looked up.
"Alright, let’s get ready."
His gaze moved from Edruson to Flynn.
"Stalker, why don’t you talk to the NPC? The quest belongs to you. See if you can trigger any special dialogue."
Flynn nodded.
Mia’s quest had already been marked as completed in his log, but he would still need to return to the Rogue Guild in Moster to formally turn it in.
He approached Edruson and asked if there was anything else they could do.
The rogue shook his head slowly.
"My wounds are too severe," he said. "The battle with Markel consumed most of my remaining strength. I can no longer assist you."
He paused before continuing.
"Brave adventurers, you must defeat Duke Ceylan yourselves. The stench of death surrounds him. He is no longer the noble duke he once was, but a corrupted undead creature. Slay him, and the people of Moster will remember your deeds for generations."
With that, Edruson faded into stealth and vanished from sight.
Flynn returned to the group and gave Let-There-Be-Light a helpless shrug.
Let-There-Be-Light had not expected much help from the NPC anyway, so he simply waved his hand.
"Alright. Let’s head down and start the fight."
The group made their way back down the stairs into the main hall.
Since this was a first-clear attempt and no one had any experience with the final boss yet, Let-There-Be-Light kept the instructions simple. He reminded everyone to stay alert and then sent Not-A-Bystander forward to initiate the fight.
They had already reached Duke Ceylan on Hell difficulty without suffering a single death.
Even saying it out loud felt surreal.
At this point, Let-There-Be-Light could not help feeling a small spark of hope.
If they managed to defeat the Duke without losing anyone, they might actually earn that achievement.
The Extreme Adventurer series was not an ordinary achievement line. The system classified it as part of the rare category known as Glorious Achievements.
Achievements in the game were ranked by difficulty: Common, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Epic, Legendary, and Mythic, mirroring the equipment tiers. The first four were considered standard. The last three belonged to the so-called Divine tier, which were notoriously difficult to obtain and often tied to artifacts or similarly powerful rewards.
But Glorious Achievements stood apart from all of them.
They were reserved for accomplishing feats that bordered on the impossible during a specific stage of the game.
They were marks of true prestige.
The Extreme Adventurer series was one of those. And now, for the first time, Let-There-Be-Light felt it might actually be within reach.
The thought left him almost dizzy.
Not-A-Bystander was clearly distracted as well. He had never experienced anything like this before. Leading a team that was ahead of a famous pro like Mila felt unreal.
Because of that excitement, he made a mistake.
When he swung his shield forward to perform Shield Bash, the timing was just slightly off.
In older games, missing like that would have been impossible. Once a skill was activated and the target locked, the system automatically calculated whether it hit or missed.
But this game was different.
As long as the target was within the system’s allowed range, the skill would activate. Whether the attack actually connected depended on the player’s physical timing and the opponent’s movement.
Not-A-Bystander had swung his shield a fraction of a second too early. The edge of the shield brushed across the Duke’s chest without making proper contact.
The skill went on cooldown, and it did absolutely nothing.
Let-There-Be-Light was still lost in his thoughts about the achievement and did not notice right away.
Flynn did.
He immediately recognized that the impact looked wrong. A proper Shield Bash had a very distinct animation and sound.
"Heads up!" Flynn shouted. "Bystander, what happened?"
"Don’t attack yet!" Not-A-Bystander said quickly as he stumbled forward, a surge of panic hitting him.
He wanted to kick himself for such a stupid mistake.
Fortunately, his combat instincts kicked in immediately. Since the Shield Bash had failed, he threw his shield instead to secure the Duke’s aggro.
The shield struck true.
When the Duke’s attention locked onto him, Not-A-Bystander finally exhaled.
"That was close," he muttered. "Alright, start DPS. Just watch your threat."
Then he glanced back at Let-There-Be-Light and sent him a private message.
"Light, what happened back there?"
He had expected Let-There-Be-Light to be the first person to notice something wrong. At the very least, Amy or Chad should have spotted it.
Instead, Flynn had been the one to call it out.
Not-A-Bystander knew Flynn was skilled, but that kind of split-second warning usually came from players with extensive high-level raid experience.
Let-There-Be-Light rubbed his forehead.
"I got distracted," he admitted. "Damn it... the thought of a Glorious Achievement got me worked up."
Not-A-Bystander stared at him for a moment without responding. The Let-There-Be-Light he knew was always calm and composed during combat.
But since they had started playing Age of Conquest, he had noticed several strange moments like this. The outbursts at Bryer earlier. Now this lapse in concentration.
Something felt different. He just could not quite figure out what.
Fortunately, their brief moment of carelessness did not immediately lead to disaster. The Duke was not fighting them in his true form yet.
As soon as combat began, Duke Ceylan started chanting.
A dense black aura erupted from his body, spreading outward like thick smoke. The swirling darkness gradually condensed, forming a towering phantom version of the Duke nearly ten feet tall.
The apparition was made entirely of death energy.
Amy fired a Double Shot at the phantom. The arrows struck cleanly and dealt more than 150 damage, yet the phantom’s health bar did not move at all.
Only when Flynn and Peerless Blood-Sword followed up with their own attacks did the health bar finally shift from 100 percent to 99 percent.
Let-There-Be-Light frowned.
"The phantom has more than thirty thousand HP," he muttered. "Why so much?"
He turned toward the tank.
"Bystander, how’s the damage?"
While he could estimate incoming damage by watching the tank’s health bar, the person holding aggro always had the clearest sense of how hard the boss was hitting.
Not-A-Bystander sounded surprised.
"It’s not that high," he said. "Way weaker than Prince Markel."
Let-There-Be-Light’s frown deepened. "Dont let down your guard. That’s probably just a property of the phantom."
He tightened his grip on his staff.
"Speed up the DPS. If this thing decides to self-destruct at the end, we’re finished."
He had seen mechanics like that countless times in other games.
Many bosses had phases where failing to kill them quickly enough would trigger a massive explosion that wiped out the entire party.
The Ceylan Ruins already had a similar mechanic. Markel’s second phase had been exactly like that. If those three heads were not destroyed within a minute, it resulted in an unavoidable wipe.
And that was precisely where Chad’s team was still stuck.